I'm not sure how credible a post on about Lingo DSLReports should be taken in the grand scheme of things. but the idea that some of these issue gives me a chance to talk about the customer service experiences I've had with Vonage, Skype, iConnectHere, AT&T and Voice Pulse to date.
Vonage--Mixed. The support is a mix of offshore and domestic. Most of what needs to be done can be done by email, and while that's good for techies, it's not good for the mass market. My experience with the softphone and its platform issues was a tad funny, and took the intervention of the Vonage PR team.
VoicePulse--Overall the support is good, but they have limited hours and up to now it has been primarily by e-mail. The company plans to add real time live support. When I did talk to their staff they were very knowledgeable, but it took the CEO/Founder to help on the Zyxel WiFI phone, which works great with VP.
iConnectHere--Great support. I had an issue with the drivers for the Clarysis phone and one of my PC's. They were able to get me to the right person and the problem was explained and fixed. The support was by email, and then phone.
Skype--My account balance was off depending on which PC I was on. Email rapidly explained it was a bug. So far, there has been no need for tech support.
AT&T CallVantage--So far my one need to call them, dealing with a bug for a day when the Do Not Disturb has been the best experience of all the companies. Rapid answer to the call. A knowledgeable support specialist. A call back after it was fixed to make sure I didn't have any problems. I like the human touch.
I've been a Lingo customer for over six months, and have never had any issues with them. In my opinion, Lingo has fairly good local and international calling solutions.
Moreover, switching to Lingo is very easy. Lingo can port your existing phone number without any hassles.
Posted by: Ivan | September 04, 2007 at 08:13 PM
I first used Vonage for about 6 months, but they could never get the DTMF right (for techies, I guess they used in-band DTMF on the Motorola device) ; then I switched to Lingo and kept both for a couple of months. I cancelled Vonage because of the bad DTMF handling. They charge no cancellation penalty after returning the equipment (had to call them though for the money, they were "forgetfull".).
Lingo DTMF worked out of the box, used it for four months, audio is mostly OK one way but very bad duplex handling , one can not interrupt the other speaker in 80% of cases. Lingo never managed to do anything about it, so I called Vonage and they promised that DTMF is now fixed. Ordered new Vonage, comes with a Linksys box and both audio and DTMF now work really great .
So I then called to cancel Lingo; be warned, they carge $40 for cancellation !! Please warn people about this charge !!
Posted by: Bart | January 19, 2005 at 02:09 PM
On my end: Skype-no problems; Packet8-one minor "call forwarding" problem--fixed immediately w call to tech support
Posted by: J Pawlik | August 30, 2004 at 03:50 AM